The Six Million Dollar Cowboy

Alright alright. It’s a new post. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t it annoying when somebody just writes rhetorical questions? Anyhow, couple things out of the way, starting with the titles. My computer is in a million (metaphorical actually closer to around 30) pieces in a box. It’s sort of sad actually. But I do have new parts now, so new fans to keep the CPU all nice and chilled to Paper Zeppelin runs like it’s supposed to. Also, hopefully, avoid flames.The extra stupid thing is that for all intents and the occasional purpose, Paper Zeppelin is done from a design and code perspective. There’s still some bugs to iron out, but the core thing is done and just waiting for the last few levels. Which reminds me, no new art assets. I could probably start making them, but I have exactly dick-all idea whether the assets will work in the engine or not, or if they will look like proverbial ass. So to save myself the time I haven’t gotten past the planning stages of what PZ will actually look like. I’ll post stuff as soon as I know.In the meantime, it’s my plan this weekend to put Shiney (sic) back together, now with new and improved cooling fan action. Since taking it apart took multiple hours spread over a couple of days, I’m, thinking that putting it back together may take a bit of time. I’ll have an update soon regarding that, followed shortly by Paper Zeppelin updates which are fewer and further between than I would like.

So, questions may arise like, “What have you been doing since the last time?” and “I didn’t think of more than 1 question before I started this thought.” Well, I focused on classes (4.0 natch) and on other non-computer based design issues. I’ve taught myself to use Access and write things in that code (which is very C-ish by the way). Mostly though, I’ve done the following.

Desperado or Gunslinger, I haven’t decided on a name yet, is a trading card game that I’ve developed recently. I started with a top down design after watching Rango of all things where I wanted to make a card game based on old west concepts and spaghetti western stereotypes. I’m creating cards for it, and I’ll pass out versions of the thing I build at ComiKhan in the coming weeks. I’ll post up the rule set over there => when I’m happy with them and they aren’t just full of half crazed notes.If that goes well I’ll either start selling the game, or release the rules under a Creative Commons license and see what the world does to it. If that turns out not so stupid, I’ll release the rule sets for other things I’ve put together (like the SHADOW TCG I’ve developed in my free time).

Oh, right. When I take a break from game creation I design games. I thought I had a problem, but Game Designers all seem to do this. Creation from nothing via imagination and will is Fun!

The other thing I’ve been working on is a web comic. A friend of mine (an artist friend and the original Animator for The Thief’s Tale by the by) and me have been in the process of creating a comic story based on an idea we’ve had for like, a million years. If it wasn’t for the fact that Shiney (sic) exploded and is a zombie now, I probably wouldn’t have started working on this. So that’s good news I guess.So we’re doing that and going to stick it up on Comic Fury until it’s successful and I want to sell advertising. (Yay! Capitalism) I’ll stick links up here for every issue and you can see what I write when I’m not blogging this. Hint : It has a goofy sense of humor and the structure is all weird on purpose.

In the meantime, I’ve got screwdrivers and a laptop to bring back from the brink…